Imagine If These Were Your Teachers

Learn WITH Innovators

Constructing Modern Knowledge, now in its 9th year, has a proven track record of providing opportunities for working educators to be in the company of their heroes, experts, and thought leaders. (see our Hall of Fame). Our remarkable faculty supports your project work while guest speakers don’t just make a PowerPoint presentation and disappear, they spend time with CMK participants over meals, conversation, or project work.

Constructing Modern Knowledge is not a conference where you “sit and git.” Educators are active learners.

Molly to the rescue!

Rather than spend days listening to a series of speakers, CMK 2016 is about action. Attendees work on personally meaningful projects and interact with educational experts concerned with maximizing the potential of each learner. While our outstanding faculty is comprised of educational pioneers, bestselling authors and inventors of innovative educational technologies, the real power of Constructing Modern Knowledge emerges from the collaborative project development of participants.

Knowledge is the consequence of experience. Such understanding is socially constructed by joining a community of practice where one makes the conscious decision to emulate the behavior of the masters engaged in similar pursuits. No other professional learning event offers modern educators greater access to expertise. You can learn with these experts at CMK 2016! Register today!

Cynthia & MIT’s Dr. Claudia Urrea help with a CMK project

Dr. Cynthia Solomon

Co-inventor of Logo

In 1967, CMK Senior Fellow Cynthia Solomon was one of the three inventors of Logo, the first computer programming language for children. She was also responsible for developing many of the metaphors teachers use to help children understand computing. Her many accomplishments led to Dr. Solomon being given the 2016 Pioneer Award by the National Center for Women and Information Technology.

Brian Silverman

Since the 1970s, Brian Silverman has played a major role in the development of dozens of programmable environments for learners at Logo Computer Systems, The Playful Invention Company, and LEGO. Brian has played a major role in the creation of Apple/IBM/Atari Logo, LogoWriter, MicroWorlds, the PICO Cricket, LEGO TC Logo, Turtle Art, and Scratch. He is perhaps the most accomplished learner one will ever meet with expertise in mathematics, electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence, aerospace, and art.

Sylvia Martinez

Co-author of Invent to Learn – Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom

A veteran of aerospace, educational software, and video game industries, Sylvia is the President of Constructing Modern Knowledge and Constructing Modern Knowledge Press. She is the co-author, along with CMK founder Dr. Gary Stager, of the book, Invent To Learn – Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Prior to her role at the helm of CMK’s publishing and professional learning activities, Sylvia was President of Generation YES, a non-profit dedicated to student empowerment and leadership. She is in great demand as a speaker on Making and Gender & S.T.E.M.

Dr. Edith Ackermann

Edith provides food for thought

Learning Theorist

Dr. Ackermann is an expert on the intersection of play, design, and learning. She worked closely with three of the past century’s most prominent learning theorists: Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert, and Ernst Von Glaserfeld. Edith brings the eye of an artist, the mind of a scientist, and the grace of a dancer to the work of CMK. She is an invaluable addition to our team.

Dr. Dan and Molly Lynn Watt

Authors and experts in creating productive contexts for learning

Dr. Daniel Lynn Watt has a Ph.D. in engineering and was a researcher on the seminal Brookline Project, one of the early studies demonstrating the efficacy of learning with computers in schools. Dan’s mid-1980s book, “Learning with Logo,” was translated into many languages and sold more than 100,000 copies nearly thirty years ago. Dan and Molly were international stars on the educational technology circuit in the 1980s and led the Logo Institutes which are a major inspiration for CMK. Molly is a veteran educator with a remarkable gift for creating and sustaining productive contexts for learning. Together, they authored one of the best books ever written about teaching computer programming to children, “Teaching with Logo: Building Blocks for Learning.”

Eric & Edith brainstorm with a CMK participant

Dr. Eric Rosenbaum

Inventor, Educator, Musician

Dr. Rosenbaum’s inventions include MaKey MaKey (with Jay Silver), Drawdio, Beetle Blocks, Glow Doodle, Singing Fingers and more. Eric was also on the Scratch development team while a doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab.

Dr. Mitchel Resnick

Mitchel Resnick hosts CMK 2014 Media Lab reception

Creator of Scratch & MIT Media Lab Professor

Dr. Resnick is the creator of Scratch and the Director of the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten research group. He was also a designer of the first programmable LEGO construction sets and serves on the Board of LEGO. Dr. Resnick is a winner of the 2011 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education and was listed as one of the 100 most creative people in Business by Fast Company. He will host the 2016 CMK reception at the MIT Media Lab.

Professor Carlina Rinaldi

Carla Rinaldi (photo by http://bit.ly/1TPd752)

President of Reggio Children

Professor Carla Rinaldi is a world leader in education for children in the early years. She has been the President of Reggio Children since 2007 and is the first President of the Reggio Children – Loris Malaguzzi Centre Foundation. Carla is also a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and worked side-by-side with Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach, from 1970 until his death in 1994 in the municipal infant toddler and preschool system of Reggio Emilia, where she was the first pedagogical coordinator.

Paulie DiMeo

Paul DiMeo

Television’s favorite carpenter

Paul DiMeo while best known as the carpenter with attitude on ABC Television’s two-time Emmy winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, is also an established actor, a man’s man and the first to cry on his hit show. He is currently the host of Building Wild on the National Geographic Channel, now in its second season. He has performed on television, off-broadway, built theatre sets, renovated Aaron Burr’s brownstone, and was the lead designer of Major League Baseball’s fan cave in New York City. Paul represents one of our favorite kinds of CMK guest speakers, wildly successful adults working in careers that their high school guidance counselors could never have imagined.

Everyone’s a learner at CMK! Faculty members Brian Smith & Brian Harvey work out a bug.

Testimonials

All About CMK 2017

We take the unique design and experience of Constructing Modern Knowledge seriously. We also try our best to be responsive to the needs of the diverse learners who participate in our institute. Based on feedback and success at last year’s institute, we have decided to add two new features to the CMK 2017 experience. Optional […]

Constructing Modern Knowledge, July 11-14, 2017 is a minds-on institute for educators committed to creativity, collaboration and computing. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in intensive computer-rich project development with peers and a world-class faculty. Inspirational guest speakers and social events round out the fantastic event. Rather than spend days listening to a series of […]

Constructing Modern Knowledge 2017 is committed to making connections between child-centered learning theories and the creative construction of knowledge with computers. In addition to providing a rich sandbox where educators enjoy the luxury of time to work on personally rewarding projects, there are occasional opportunities to interact with some of the greatest educational minds of our […]

One of the most rewarding aspects of Constructing Modern Knowledge is the ability to work with some of the world’s leading educational technology experts on personal project development. Cynthia Solomon, Brian Silverman, Gary Stager, Brian C. Smith, Dan Lynn Watt, Molly Lynn Watt, Sylvia Martinez, Claudia Urrea, and Brian Smith have unrivaled experience and expertise […]